I would love to have an ongoing thread for people interested in doing the Spinning Babies positions for optimal fetal positioning. I am about 23 weeks and would like to use Spinning Babies techniques to prevent malpositioning. I had a posterior baby last time and the back labor was awful. I had tried to flip him for weeks with chiropractic but no luck. Hopeful that advance prep can help me avoid such a fate this time. :)

If any of you have gotten into this already or done it with a previous pregnancy, I have some questions: I read on the SB website that when you sit (Rest Smart section), you should keep your knees lower than your hips.

I can't break my couch addiction - it's where I like to eat and I'm doing that like 24 hours a day - but since it's hard to do knees lower than hips on my couch, I've been trying to sit cross-legged (ie what people used to call "Indian style") on the couch to keep my pelvis open.

Other times, if I'm in a place where I'm sitting with my knees high, I try to lean forward to keep my belly low to the ground (as opposed to reclining which my chiropractor said is the worst for fetal positioning). I figure there must be something good about this because squatting is such a traditional way of sitting and this is at least more like a squat than the typical way one would sit around in a chair.

So for those of you who have given some thought to this in the past, or have experience, what do you think of the route I've been taking? I'm sure I'd be better off sitting on the floor or on a yoga ball, or squatting, all the time, but when I'm not, do my variations sound to you like they jive with the Spinning Babies theories?

Great idea for a thread I've been trying out similar things as you. When I'm on the couch I put a pillow behind me and sit cross legged. This works for awhile but I feel like I have to move my legs eventually. I try to either sit that way or lay down but as we speak I'm kicked back in the recliner. When I do my stretching/exercises I've been practicing letting my belly hang like a hammock and also doing the inversions. I'm having a hard time sitting still and getting comfy. I think I'm going to break down and get the ball. We have very small space so I've been putting it off. Maybe the bouncing will be kinda comforting??

Someone in a previous DDC I was in suggested the simple rule, "belly button facing out or down, but never up." This was the best advice! That is pretty much all I followed with DS2, and I had a well-positioned baby! (My first was posterior, and I understand the horror!)

Porcelina, what a great rule! I love it! (And, I trust it coming from a woman who knows what it's like to give birth posterior!!)

JustJenny, nice to see you! I share the small space-ball dilemma...I have a yoga ball and it does feel awesome - I don't bounce so much as pivot around the way I learned last pregnancy in pilates and bellydance classes - but I'm tall and the ball I need to feel comfortable is HUGE - I can't bring it around the house with me. :)

Can someone explain the breastfeeding pillow / sleeping with belly dipped thing to me? I brought my boppy to bed last night tried a few different things, said "ah screw this" and threw it on the floor....

I'm usually a back sleeper but have been spending a good portion of the night on my sides with my belly pointing as down as I can. My shoulders hurt often (I carry my tension there all day long) while trying to sleep on side in bed so some help with sleep positioning would be most appreciative.

Can someone explain the breastfeeding pillow / sleeping with belly dipped thing to me? I brought my boppy to bed last night tried a few different things, said "ah screw this" and threw it on the floor....

I'm usually a back sleeper but have been spending a good portion of the night on my sides with my belly pointing as down as I can. My shoulders hurt often (I carry my tension there all day long) while trying to sleep on side in bed so some help with sleep positioning would be most appreciative.

Catwmandu -- my advice is lots and lots of pillows! Pillow behind your back, big pillow to hug (body pillow if possible) and/or to cushion base of belly, pillow between your legs, and wherever else seems comfortable! It doesn't have to be a boppy or a pregnancy pillow or anything. I did buy the snoogle for my last pregnancy because I found I was rolling onto my back a ton. It was okay, but seems pretty squashed now! I think the goal is for you to find a comfortable way to sleep on your side, and that's about it.

Thanks. I will just need to keep trying. I had the snoogle for my first pregnancy but not my last one. The OBs with my first were very anti-back laying and my with my last midwives told me to do whatever I needed as long as I needed and was comfortable.

I found that the spinning babies exercises like inversion and side lying pelvic release and cat/cow helped my pelvic pain, esp in my second pregnancy, but did not turn my babies. I delivered both babies posterior with rather quick labors. The first was excruciating (also nuchal hand) and 8 hours of active labor / transition like pains. The second labor was that painful during the second stage but it only lasted a half an hour. Transition was maybe 15 min or half an hour. I suspect that my pelvis is shaped so that my babies just come out OP. I have read that the inversions, etc, are most effective before 32 weeks, while there is still lots of room for baby to move, so maybe focus on doing those now?

I will do the exercises again because it does seem to help my body be more comfortable, but because I know I have speedy labor, I'm less concerned about avoiding an OP baby. If I have the level of pain I had with my first, I am going to have an epidural, but if it's like my second, I'll go natural.

For resting, I like the resting position recommended in the bradley book. It involves a lot of pillows but is so comfy.